Slowly
by celeste9
Summary: Unfortunately, it was becoming clear that if Emily waited for Becker to make the first move, she would be waiting a very, very long time. Becker/Emily


_****_A/N: For the prompt, 'Emily/Becker, setting out to seduce him because he's far too chivalrous'. Though it ended up a courtship more than a seduction! General season 5 spoilers.

_**Slowly**_

The twenty-first century moved quickly. There were cars and aeroplanes to transport everyone faster than Emily could have dreamed of as a girl. The people walked and even talked quickly, moving from one task to another with hardly a moment to breathe. It was a lot to take in.

People were also somewhat ruder than Emily remembered. She was inclined to believe there was a correlation with the speed of their lives - they were so busy trying to get a hundred things accomplished that they had a tendency to forget common decency.

Maybe that was why Emily felt drawn to Becker. She appreciated his courtesy and generally pleasing manners, although she could do with less of his 'get behind me and let me shoot the big, nasty creature' attitude. While Becker wasn't exactly a gentleman by Victorian standards, he was respectful. Emily was particularly amused by his attempts to curtail his foul tongue when he was in her presence. She wasn't stupid; she had heard him when he was around his men. But he tried very hard when she was nearby and so she tried very hard not to laugh at his efforts.

Emily liked Becker. In fact, she liked him enough that she had begun dropping hints that she would be open to romantic advances from him, but Becker had still done nothing to show that he had even noticed. It was possible he hadn't noticed, Emily supposed. Was she being too subtle? Times were so different now. Or maybe he was just slow on the uptake.

Emily knew she was more forward-thinking than a woman of her time had any right to be (or so she had been told, anyway), but that didn't mean that she didn't retain certain opinions on how things should be done. Namely, it shouldn't be up to her to initiate courtship. It was hard work and, frankly, she would rather sit back and let Becker try to attract her attention.

Unfortunately, it was becoming clear that if Emily waited for Becker to make the first move, she would be waiting a very, very long time. She could be patient, but everyone has limits. It appeared that if she wanted to be more than friends with Becker, she was going to have to do something about it herself.

There was one issue, however, that needed to be settled before Emily could move forward. Although she was fairly certain that Jess and Becker were never going to be anything but friends, Emily felt it was best to be sure. She wanted no hurt feelings.

So one day when she and Jess were sharing a meal together, Emily asked, "Do you still wish to walk out with Becker?"

"No, I'm done with him," Jess answered readily enough, a forkful of leftover Chinese hovering in mid-air. "Far too much effort and he clearly wasn't interested."

That was good to hear. "How do you know for certain? He never said anything, did he?"

"Believe me, I know. I wasn't exactly subtle."

"Well, I'm sorry you didn't get what you wanted," Emily said truthfully. Even if she wouldn't mind having Becker on her own arm, Emily hoped she wasn't petty enough to begrudge a friend her own happiness.

Jess waved a hand dismissively. "Don't be. It's his loss. So, what about you and Matt?"

"Matt and I have decided to be friends." It had been an amicable and a rather easy decision, fortunately. They weren't as well-suited as Emily had once thought. She thought maybe all it had ever been was hope - Emily had been unhappily married, lonely, and in a strange place and Matt had been the only one who seemed to understand. He'd been kind to her but kindness wasn't enough to build a relationship on.

As a matter of fact, Emily had begun to suspect that Matt didn't much care for women at all, but that was really none of her business.

"Oh. That's good, I guess." Jess' face fell, like she was disappointed.

The way Jess could get so invested in everyone else's lives still surprised Emily. She was unused to having a friend like Jess, a real… well, girlfriend. Someone who was interested in Emily's life and cared about her well-being. That was probably why it was so important to have this out in the open - the very last thing she wanted was to hurt Jess. "It suits us well enough. Jess, I'm going to be straight-forward. As you are no longer interested in gaining Becker's affections, would it bother you if I pursued him?"

"What?" Jess blinked her large blue eyes a few times, rather like an owl.

"I would like to court Captain Becker but as I consider you my friend, I would appreciate your blessing."

Jess emitted a high-pitched giggle and covered her mouth with her hand. Her laughter was only slightly muted. When she had calmed, she said, "Oh my God. Sure, Emily, go ahead. Court Captain Becker; you've certainly got my approval."

Though she wasn't entirely certain as to what exactly was so amusing, Emily said only, "Thank you. Your support is appreciated."

Jess merely grinned at her. "I hope you have more success than I did."

* * *

When Emily began to ponder how to go about courting Becker, she was forced to admit that most of her knowledge was, well, rather dated. No one held balls any more, which Emily had to admit she was grateful for. The gossiping had always bored her, though she did sometimes miss the dancing.

To be honest, Emily hadn't the slightest clue how people went about this sort of thing now. She was obviously reluctant to be guided by what she had seen in films and the internet still vaguely frightened her. She could of course ask Jess, but as Jess had failed so utterly in courting Becker herself, a different course of action was probably due. Not everything she knew would be useless, would it?

Perhaps a gift would be in order. Surely that would make her intentions plain. She pondered the sort of gifts she herself had received from suitors. Flowers were out of the question and she discarded the idea of sheet music nearly as quickly. Chocolate? Emily kept it as a possibility. A book?

Hmm. That could work, but it created a new set of problems. Mainly, what sort of book would Becker want? Emily had had a great understanding of literature in her own time, but she was now hopelessly out-of-date. Besides that, she had very little idea of the type of books Becker might find interesting. Still, Emily didn't want to let a few minor obstacles get in the way of what she wanted, so she decided to go to a bookshop at her earliest convenience. Surely she could manage to find something suitable.

Complications at the ARC delayed Emily for longer than she had wanted, but two days after she had decided on a plan, she went to a shop after work. Emily stared at the rows of shelves, wondering where to even begin. Did Becker like science fiction, as Connor did? Probably not, judging from the way he rolled his eyes at Connor. Would he want to read books related to warfare, or would that be too much like taking his job home with him? Did he like cheap action novels? Spy stories or mysteries? Was he a secret romantic? Did he appreciate the classics?

With a sigh, Emily was forced to admit that there were a lot of things about Becker she didn't know. His interests were nearly a complete mystery. Damn the man, why couldn't he be as charmingly transparent as Connor?

On a whim, she wandered into the military history section. Somehow she suspected that Becker would love that sort of thing. He just… seemed the type. But which book to get? In what period would his interests lie? Emily perused the shelves, picking up a book here and there to inspect idly, before her eye was caught by one titled _The Punic Wars,_ by a Dr Adrian Goldsworthy. It looked promising and honestly, anything she selected was going to be a guess.

Thus settled, she made her purchase and brought it to the ARC the next day. Deciding it couldn't hurt to get a second opinion, Emily found Jess at her station. "Jess, I've bought Becker a gift. Do you think that's appropriate?"

"A gift?" Jess' gaze flew to the book in Emily's hands. "Oh, you bought him a book! That's sweet, Emily."

That was a relief. "I wasn't sure if he would find it odd."

"He probably will, a little, honestly. I mean, it isn't his birthday or anything. But I'm sure he'll be pleased as well."

"Oh." Emily gripped the book tightly.

"Don't be so nervous," Jess told her with a reassuring smile. "He'll love it. Go on, why wait? Tell me what he says."

Emily left without another word, making her way through the ARC to Becker's office. She knocked firmly on Becker's partially closed door and waited until she heard him answer. She slipped inside, holding the book behind her. "Hello, Becker."

He looked up from his laptop. "Hi, Emily. What can I do for you?"

"Actually I wanted to give you something. I thought... Well, I've bought you a book."

Becker looked startled. "You have?"

"Yes, I..." Emily thrust it at him, feeling unaccountably awkward. All the rules of social etiquette she had ever learned had apparently flown right out of her head. "I'm not even sure if you'll like it, but here it is."

Taking the book from Emily's hands, Becker's expression morphed from unsure to pleased. "No, this is great. I'm sort of a nerd for military history and I love anything about ancient Rome."

"I'm relieved you like it. I must admit I found myself at a loss in the shop, trying to pick something."

"Well, you made a good choice. Thanks, Emily. It was kind of you to purchase it."

"It was my pleasure," Emily answered, smiling. A job well done, she thought. Now all that remained was to see what would come of it.

* * *

The bar of chocolate mysteriously appeared by Emily's things when she came back from a toilet break the next day. Although Becker never said anything and neither did Emily, it could only have been from him.

"That's more expensive chocolate than he got me," Jess said when Emily showed it to her. "That probably means something."

"You think so?" Emily popped a square into her mouth and savored it, offering the bar to Jess. It was very, very good chocolate.

* * *

Victorian courtship consisted of a lot of walking. Couples met and spoke and then they walked out together. This was something Emily thought could be transferred quite easily to modern times. Couldn't it? People still took walks.

It was unfortunate that the scenery around the ARC wasn't terribly pleasing, but there was at least a park nearby that Emily thought would do. It was particularly unfortunate that she was going to have to initiate it all herself, but she was growing used to it. At least she no longer would be expected to have a chaperone.

Emily approached Becker during his lunch hour and said, "I was thinking of taking in some fresh air. Would you like to join me?"

"For a walk?" Becker shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind. I have a bit of time. Is anyone else coming?"

"No, just us. Unless that's a problem?"

"No, of course not," Becker said but he appeared faintly puzzled.

Emily despaired of this ever getting anywhere. His head was like a brick.

They exited the ARC together onto the streets of London, the day bright, sunny, and breezy. Perfect for a companionable walk. Emily was glad of the fact she had learned how to properly converse, as Becker clearly had not. They spoke idly of the weather and their colleagues, of the current events that Emily was making an effort to be knowledgeable about.

It was only a short walk to the park, where they could stroll more comfortably and slowly and enjoy a much better view. The pleasant afternoon meant that the park was full of people who had had much the same idea as Emily, the desire to spend a moment in the fresh air while they could.

"Do you want to sit for a while?" Becker asked as they approached an empty bench in the shade of a birch tree.

"All right," Emily said and they sat down together, Becker keeping a respectable distance between them that Emily's mother surely would have approved of.

They sat in silence, simply watching the people walk past them and the birds in the trees. Emily breathed deep and relished the opportunity to relax. Even if this outing did nothing to further her relationship with Becker, it would be worth it for purely personal reasons.

"He's on the phone to his mistress, explaining that he has to cancel dinner to make a token appearance at home," Becker said suddenly.

"Pardon?"

"That man," Becker said, gesturing, and Emily followed his sightline to see a businessman in a smart suit with his mobile pressed to his ear. "I'm afraid I have to admit I'm a closet people-watcher. I like to imagine what their stories are."

Emily studied him with a vague sense of surprise. She would never have suspected Becker of that sort of thing but it was somehow endearing. "That sounds amusing. Let me have a try." She glanced around before settling on a promising target. "That woman, running. She is attempting to keep her stress at bay after meeting with her lawyer to discuss going public with a scandal that will ruin the image of the company she works for."

"Not bad." Becker pointed out a prim-looking man accompanied by a much younger woman with a very large ring on her finger. "He likes it when she dominates him and purposely displeases her so that she'll spank him."

Emily felt a blush rise in her cheeks. She looked at Becker askance but he was as inscrutable as ever. Not to be outdone, she drew Becker's attention to a middle-aged couple and tried to think of something scandalous. "They invited a woman into their bed in an attempt to rediscover their passion, but now she's leaving him. For another woman, of course."

Becker chuckled. "The one they slept with?"

"Yes, I imagine so."

"Ouch." He nodded at a man of about thirty with shaggy hair, wearing tight jeans and an old Sex Pistols T-shirt. "Lives at home with his mum."

A giggle escaped her and then Emily made the mistake of looking at Becker's perfectly bland expression again. She laughed until her belly hurt, thinking that she couldn't remember the last time she'd been this completely content, happy and unencumbered. Becker was laughing easily next to her. He had a nice laugh that he used far too infrequently - Emily wanted to hear it more.

"Thanks," Becker said, bumping his shoulder against Emily's before getting up from the bench, holding out a hand to assist Emily. "This was nice."

"It was," Emily agreed, brushing off the back of her trousers. She waited expectantly for Becker to say something along the lines of, _Let's do this again,_ or, even better, _I'd like to take you to dinner,_ but he disappointed her.

"Back to the ARC?" he said, offering Emily the crook of his elbow.

Emily swallowed a sigh. At least Becker was a gentleman.

* * *

As the days passed, Emily had to admit that she was becoming rather frustrated with her lack of progress. Perhaps Becker simply wasn't interested in her. But he did seem to enjoy her company and he treated her warmly, with an affection that Emily dared to think was different from the brotherly fondness he showed Jess. It seemed to Emily that Becker did like her but was hesitant to do anything about it.

Why would that be so? She was at a loss. It was hard to believe that a man of this time would feel the desire to move a relationship along even more slowly than Emily wanted to. _Entirely too chivalrous,_ Emily thought to herself.

Perhaps she was mistaken and her original thought had been true. It was possible he wasn't interested, as he had been uninterested in Jess. Of course, that line of thinking led her to another possibility. Could Becker favour men?

She pondered the question. How did one tell if an acquaintance preferred same-sex relations? Emily had to admit that this was an area in which her knowledge was decidedly lacking. Becker wasn't shy about physical contact, but Emily seemed to recall him being equally affectionate with both men and women. He was very clean and fastidious, which she had been led to believe were traits more common in homosexual men rather than heterosexual men, but he was also a soldier. It could simply have been drilled into him from training.

A second opinion was going to be necessary. But who to ask?

The problem was solved when Emily entered the break room the next morning to find Connor. He would do.

"Hi, Emily," Connor greeted her, one hand on a cup of coffee.

"Good morning, Connor. I wondered if you could answer a question for me."

"Sure. What is it?"

To be quite honest, Emily was cringing a bit inside at having to ask. She did think that people deserved to be able to keep their privacy, but desperate times and everything. She stated her question bluntly because otherwise she would never get it out. "Does Becker sleep with men?"

Connor choked. Emily looked on with concern until he regained control of his breathing. "Sorry, what?" he said, wheezing slightly.

"Becker," Emily said, speaking more slowly in the hope that would help. "Does he like men instead of women?"

"You know, I think you'll have to ask him that yourself. He doesn't exactly talk about that sort of thing."

"But how is his behaviour? Surely you would have noticed?"

"You mean, does he look at my arse in the showers? Can't say I've ever caught him at it, no."

Emily blew out a breath in frustration. "You aren't very much help."

"Um, sorry?" Connor made an apologetic shrugging motion. "Why do you want to know, anyway?"

"Because if Becker favours men, it will explain why he has still shown no interest in me."

"Wait, you're trying to get Becker to notice you?"

Emily continued on as if Connor hadn't spoken. "It would be a terrible waste of energy if he likes men."

"What happened to Matt?"

Emily waved a hand. Why did Connor insist on latching onto the irrelevant things she said? "Matt and I decided to be friends ages ago."

"Right, ages ago," Connor said, an edge of annoyance colouring his tone. "I guess no one thought to tell me."

"Oh, stop getting huffy like it's a personal affront to you. The important issue is Becker's sexuality."

Connor made a face. "That is not a sentence I ever wanted to hear."

"Can you really not help me at all?"

"I don't know what you want me to say, Emily. Becker doesn't talk about his personal life and I don't possess some magical ability that tells me with one hundred percent certainty if he's gay or not. I don't think he is, but what do I know?"

"Nothing, apparently," Emily said, sighing, ignoring Connor's indignant look. This had been a waste of her time. Although she supposed she shouldn't have been surprised; Becker was nothing if not private. She could certainly respect that.

With the sort of perfectly inappropriate timing that normally only occurred in works of fiction, Becker chose that moment to make an appearance. "Hey, guys."

Connor turned a brilliant shade of red. "Becker! We definitely weren't talking about you, not at all. No gossip whatsoever."

"Okay," Becker said, giving Connor only a mildly curious look before pouring himself a cup of coffee. Emily supposed he was more than used to Connor's oddities by now.

Well, Connor had been useless and Emily had no desire to approach anyone else for what would likely be simply a variation of this same conversation. Why waste any more time when a golden opportunity had presented itself? Besides, asking Becker himself somehow seemed less offensive than asking someone else. "Forgive me for being bold, but I was hoping you could tell me something, Becker. Do you have either a girlfriend or a boyfriend?"

Connor made a spluttering noise that sounded suspiciously like he had spat out a mouthful of his coffee back into the mug. Emily could understand the sentiment; doubtless her mother was rolling in her grave. Then again, Emily had appalled her mother with her behaviour most of her life.

Becker narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

It was probably a bad sign that he was asking that. "Oh, curiosity, that's all."

"Neither," Becker said after a moment, turning back towards the counter so Emily couldn't see his face.

"If you did, which would it be? A girlfriend or a boyfriend?"

At Emily's side, Connor seemed to be holding his breath. Becker, for his part, hadn't moved.

Oh, damn. She'd pushed it too far, hadn't she? She began to form an apology in her head.

But Becker faced them, coming forward to squeeze Connor's shoulder. "Sorry to crush your dreams of a threesome, Connor, but I'm absolutely not interested in men. No offense."

"None taken," Connor squeaked out.

Though he had addressed Connor, Becker's eyes had been firmly on Emily the entire time. With a small quirk of his lips and a nod to her, he left.

A glimmer of hope formed in Emily's breast. Perhaps she was beginning to get through to him after all.

"He doesn't really think it was me who wanted to know, does he?" Connor asked.

* * *

Bolstered by the knowledge that Becker did actually like women and, yet more importantly, that he might be inclined to like Emily herself, over the next few days Emily wracked her brain to come up with her next move. Obviously the walks and conversations weren't enough and she thought another gift might be too desperate. For the time being, at least. So, what next?

Men liked compliments and they liked showing women how to do things. But what could Becker do that Emily couldn't? What could he possibly instruct her in?

Inspiration hit when Emily caught a few minutes of a television show called Torchwood. The programme's unreasonably attractive, tall, dark-haired captain (the irony was not lost on her) was teaching the new woman how to shoot a gun. It was all inappropriately sexual when one party was holding a loaded gun, but then, it was television. Emily was hardly surprised by such things any more.

Of course, Emily already could shoot quite well, but a spot of extra practice never did anyone any harm. In any case, she knew Becker had an alarming fondness for guns, so she thought this could turn out very well indeed.

With some assistance from Jess, Emily waited for Becker to have a block of free time in his day before approaching him. "Becker, I'm so glad to have caught you. Would you mind doing me a favour?"

"Probably not. What did you have in mind?"

"I was hoping you could spare a moment to give me some firearms training."

"But you can already shoot a gun," Becker said predictably.

"That's true, but I thought it best to seek further instruction from an expert such as yourself."

Becker looked mildly gratified and Emily congratulated herself on expertly slipping in a compliment. "All right. I'm free now, if that's okay with you."

Emily bestowed him with a glowing smile. "Perfect."

The underground shooting range was mostly empty when Emily and Becker arrived, with only two of the stations occupied. Emily didn't know either of the soldiers and thought she was probably going to have to remedy that if she wanted to become involved with Becker.

"Did you want to practice with the EMDs?" Becker asked.

Emily realised she hadn't given her plan as much thought as she probably should have done. Would it make a difference, EMDs or guns? Would Becker find either choice odd? She hesitated and then said, "Would it be all right if you showed me how to use a real gun? I'm not as familiar with them as I would like and you never know when I might need to use one."

"Okay," Becker said and moved away. He didn't look as though he thought her request an unusual one, at least.

He returned with a gun, shooting glasses, and hearing protectors. "Put these on," Becker told her as he did the same. Then he clipped a new target to the holding system and pushed a button, sending it to the rear wall. "This is a SIG P226; it's a semi-automatic pistol. I'm guessing Matt would have shown you this one when he did your weapons training?"

Emily nodded. She'd practiced the most with that one.

"Always treat a gun as if it's loaded," Becker said as he gave her the SIG. "Don't point it at anything you aren't willing to shoot."

"I know that," Emily said. Didn't he remember that she had asked for _extra _practice?

Becker's expression remained incredibly serious. "It's something that bears repeating. Don't think I'm treating you like a child; I only want to be careful."

Mollified, Emily said, "All right." She inserted the magazine into the gun and listened for it to click into place before pulling back the slide to chamber a round. "Does that meet your approval?"

Becker rolled his eyes. "Fine."

Emily smirked and raised the gun, facing the target.

"Here, your stance is a little off." Becker moved in right behind her, wedging a thigh in between her legs to nudge her feet slightly further apart, and then grasped her waist, adjusting the angle of her hips. Emily was faintly appalled to realise she was feeling a little flushed. She understood the scene from the television programme much better now.

It was a relief when Becker stepped away, bringing his heat with him. "Your grip looks fine," he said, which was probably the most praise Emily could expect to hear. "Always check to make sure there's no one in range before you shoot."

Emily did so and then lined up the sights with the target, feeling Becker lean in over her shoulder like he was checking. He smelled of aftershave and citrus shampoo and it was more distracting than it should have been. She breathed in and then out. "May I start now?"

"Whenever you're ready. The clip holds twenty rounds, so keep track."

Emily emptied the clip, shooting quickly. It had been a while since she had fired an actual gun, but she was happy to note it still felt reasonably natural. After she had fired all twenty rounds, she ejected the magazine, checked to ensure the chamber was clear, and then placed the SIG on the shelf with the barrel carefully pointed away. A sideways glance at Becker showed her that he was watching with no small amount of approval. Emily pressed the button to bring the target forward again.

The target came back with the centre mass peppered with rounds, along with four in the head. Emily was particularly proud of those.

Becker grinned at her. "I don't think you need much practice."

Emily returned his smile, undeniably pleased. "Better to be safe."

"That's a sentiment I can get behind. If you want… What I mean is," Becker tried, looking adorably flustered, "Emily, I'm always happy to take you down here to practice, if you want. Not that you need me to, of course, you can come down whenever you want. You're clearly not Connor, who scares me too much to be allowed here without supervision. Er, anyway, ask me any time. If you want."

Taking pity on him, Emily laid her hand against Becker's arm. "Thank you, Becker, I will keep that in mind. I appreciate you allowing me to infringe upon your time."

"It's no trouble! Like I said, ask me any time."

"Thank you," Emily said again. "Now, how about lunch? Would you care to join me?"

Seeming to regain control of himself, Becker said, "Yes, I'd like that."

After clearing up their station, Emily and Becker left the range side-by-side. Emily couldn't help but feel that this little experiment had been a success, even if Becker had only offered an open invitation to the shooting range. She had heard a phrase to the effect that a man's stomach was the way to his heart, but Emily suspected that weapons were the way to Becker's heart.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Emily's acquaintance with Becker went on much as it had been. They took walks, they shared lunch together occasionally, and Emily did take Becker up on his offer of further firearms instruction. It was all lovely but still not what Emily wanted. Becker as of yet had failed to take their relationship any further and Emily was growing impatient.

It wasn't that she wanted to, well, jump into bed with him (Emily was very much still a nineteenth century girl in that respect), but she wanted some sign that they were actually courting and not just engaging in a purely platonic friendship. Emily had enough of those as it was.

She was morosely picking at the remains of a salad when Jess pulled out a chair and sat down beside her.

"How's Operation Becker going?"

"Glacially."

"That bad, huh? Well, I'm sure he appreciated your efforts to actually listen to him during yesterday's anomaly," Jess said encouragingly.

Emily perked up a bit. "Oh, you noticed?"

"You did quite well! Or, at least you did until he told you to stay back and find cover but you blatantly did the opposite."

"He was being stupidly heroic again, he was going to get himself killed."

"He does do that a lot. But you know, he just wants to protect you. All of you," Jess added hurriedly as if she was afraid Emily would take it the wrong way.

"That's very sweet, I'm sure, but I think he needs protecting from himself. And anyway, it was me who got the tiger back through the anomaly." Emily said that with a measure of pride. Becker always seemed to want to keep her out of the way, but Emily could take care of herself, thank you very much.

"Yes, and I doubt any of us will be forgetting that any time soon."

Emily checked to see if Jess was mocking her but the girl's expression had become a bit sappy.

"You two will really be wonderful together."

"That's if we ever actually are together." Emily felt like sighing but resisted. It seemed too much like something one of the heroines in the romance novels Jess kept pushing at her would do.

Jess cupped her chin in her hand, gazing thoughtfully at Emily. "Maybe it's time for you to make your intentions perfectly clear. You know, don't give him a chance to misunderstand."

"Do you think so?"

"Sure. You've never been shy about doing what you want, so why start now?"

She had a point. It was part of why Emily had been so ill-suited to her own time, particularly when she had returned after her adventures with the anomalies. "Yes, why start now?" Emily mused. "Maybe you're right, Jess. Thanks."

Jess squeezed Emily's hand. "Good luck! I'll expect details, as always."

* * *

Once Emily's mind had been made up, she decided to confront Becker at the earliest opportunity. Which meant that very day. She knocked on Becker's office door and barely waited for him to invite her in before striding into the room.

"Emily, what-"

"Do you find me unattractive?" Emily interrupted.

Becker shrank back minutely into his chair. "Um, what?"

"Is there something about me you find repellent?"

"No! Of course not. Emily, I like you. I like you a lot, actually."

That firm, heartening statement threw Emily for a second and she had to pause to keep herself from being distracted. "Then why have you been so unreceptive to my attempts at courtship?"

"Unreceptive?" Becker looked confused enough that Emily was almost charmed. "I thought you _wanted_ to go slowly; I was trying to be respectful."

"But you left it entirely up to me!"

"I was following your lead!"

Their outbursts faded into silence as they stared at each other. Eventually Emily said, "Well, I can see there has been a grave misunderstanding."

"Apparently so."

In Emily's mind, there was now only way to move forward. "Becker, please come to dinner with me."

Becker arched an eyebrow. He was nearly as good at it as Lester was. "Is that a request or an order?"

"A request, obviously, but you would do better to accept. I think you owe it to me after leaving me to court you when clearly it should be the other way around."

"Emily, you have done things your own way ever since you got here. Why should I have thought this would be any different?"

Emily was forced to admit that was a fair point. "Fine. Again, clearly we have misunderstood each other. But please give me your answer."

Becker's response was immediate and wonderfully encouraging. "I would love to have dinner with you."

"Good," Emily said, unable to keep herself from smiling. "Pick me up at seven-thirty?"

"I'll be there."

"If our dinner is successful, I will expect a good night kiss," Emily told him imperiously. "You should initiate it."

"Oh, should I?" Becker said, rolling his eyes, but a smile threatened to appear at any moment.

Emily walked back into the corridor, happiness warming her all the way to her toes. She bit her lip in a mostly futile attempt to quell her stupidly embarrassing smile and headed toward the hub to talk to Jess. If there was one person who would share her pleasure, it was Jess.

It was nice to have a girlfriend, Emily decided.

But even nicer was her dinner with Becker. It did indeed go well and Becker did not disappoint. At Emily's door, Becker kissed her softly but with an admirable amount of thoroughness. He left his hand lying against her cheek and whispered, "I'm sorry, was that too slow for you?"

"Cheeky," Emily said, scraping her nails at the back of Becker's head harder than was strictly ladylike.

"My sincerest apologies, Lady Emily," Becker said, extricating himself from Emily's grasp to scrape a low bow that was entirely at odds with the mocking tilt of his lips.

Emily carefully did not give him the satisfaction of smiling at his antics and instead pressed her mouth to his for another kiss. It was better when he didn't talk.

_**End**_


End file.
